Little Things Give You Away
by akaiiko
Summary: Not all love stories are obvious. Sometimes it's the little things that give them away. -Zutara-
1. Reaching for the Edge

**Title:** Reaching for the Edge

**Prompt: **#087 Scared

**Notes:** Takes place during 'The Southern Raiders' when Zuko falls and Katara catches him. I always wondered why even though she's supposed to still hate him, it's her who reaches to catch him. Hehe.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender.

**Reaching for the Edge**

He's falling. Something grabs her suddenly-too-fast heart and forces it up her throat. Hands shaking, eyes watering, mouth dry, heart goes thudthudthudskipthud in her esophagus. Then she realizes: no one is catching him. He's going to plummet right past her and _no one's going to get him_. Terror, she finally knows vaugely in the back of her mind, grips her and shakes her around a bit. Zuko deadgonediedherfaultcatchhimcatchhim_catchhim_!

Before she realizes it her fingers are tangling into his and he's hitting the wooden saddle with a thud. He is breathing just as heavily as she. His eyes are wide and golden and scared, but he looks up at her and there is something…sweet.

It takes less than twenty seconds.


	2. Like You Mean It

**Title: **Like You Mean It

**Prompt:** #016 Cold

**Notes: **Takes place during 'Avatar Aang' at the veeeery end and then _after_ the kissy faces are done. AANGST. **cackles**

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**Like You Mean It**

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Aang is pleased. Katara is kissing him slow and steady, her soft arms encircling his neck. She started the kiss, a first in their sort-of relationship. Her lips are warm and pliant over his. So they kiss and he tries to ignore the feeling that something maybe isn't right. It's probably, he thinks hazily, just the realization that she loves him back. Her lips are so warm.

Then she pulls away, slowly, softly. Her cheeks are flushed, her lips kiss reddened, her eyes bright. She smiles in a way that is so incredably, indescribably beautiful. Aang blinks, struck once again by how lucky he is. She laughs at his lovestruck look, holds out her hand and reminds him of their friends waiting for their return.

He follows her in happily, teases Sokka with the rest of the group and strokes Momo's fur. He looses himself in the group, but he doesn't loose sight of Katara. She's with the group just as much as he is, laughing at Toph's sarcasm and Iroh's terrible jokes. Then, for a moment, just a single moment, she turns to give Zuko her tea cup.

Something passes between the two. A gentle smirk, a sweet blush, a brushing of hands. Aang laughs loudly to interrupt the moment and darts forward, plants another kiss on Katara. Tries to prove something that he can't. He doesn't feel lucky anymore. Her lips are so, so cold now.


	3. Not Meant to Be

**Title: **Meant to Be

**Prompt: **#024 Cynical

**Notes: **Takes place around 'The Western Air Temple'. Listen to "I Don't Care" by Apocalypta, it works for this. Unlike a lot of Zutarans, I actually _do _really like Mai. I just don't think she belongs with Zuko. So there's no Mai bashing in here. On that note, don't expect any Mai bashing ever.

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Meant to Be

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Mai did not grow up believing in fairytales. By all rights, she should have. She was an only child, spoiled beyond belief by her doting father (though her mother, who actually did most of the raising, was not so loving), and privleged best friend of the princess. She had a somewhat unwilling Prince Charming and a shy disposition. She _should_ have believed in fairytales.

Maybe, if she had believed in the legends her nursemaid read her, this would not hurt so much. Like Ty Lee, she would be able to look at the elegant words spelling out Zuko's betrayal and see him coming back triumphant to conquer evil and save his damsel. She'd be able to ignore the fact that he had gone to the Avatar, and by proxy the Avatar's little Waterbender. She'd be able to dream of being his lovely Fire Lady after it was all said and done instead of remembering how he flinched when she touched his scar…how he brightened when the Waterbender came up.

But Mai is cynical, and she does not believe in fairytales. She reads his letter for the thousandth time and knows that if Zuko were leaving, that damn "Katara" would never be left like she was.


	4. I Promise I Don't Care

**Title: **I Promise I Don't Care

**Prompt: **#069 Numb

**Notes: **Takes place sometime during the two weeks between 'The Crossroads of Destiny' and 'The Awakening'. Nothing much else to say.

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**I Promise I Don't Care**

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It's a special kind of numbness reserved for those who've had their hearts broken. The type that leaves you feeling as though everything in you is pulling toward a black hole that used to be your heart and any minute you'll be sucked into that abyss never to return. It's not something that Katara is familiar with. Or _was_ familiar with, she supposes. Because she feels that black hole and she feels the constant need to give in to the despair.

When Sokka notices, she promises it's just worry for Aang. When Toph notices, she passes it off as being shocked by Ba Sing Se's fall. All others, she gives varying explanations. And the things is, all of those explanations are _true_. They just aren't the reason that she feels like she's constantly drowning.

It's _him_. Zuko, Prince of the Fire Nation. Her _mortal enemy_. Except he wasn't. For a moment, no longer that the flit of an azure butterfly's wing he was just Zuko and he was _her's_. She knows, down in the very depths of her soul, that in that moment she held his soul in the palm of her hand, not just his scar.

But she tells anyone who asks that he didn't break her heart. Didn't hurt her, didn't make her cry, didn't fix little pieces of her. She didn't fall in love with him for a second. She _didn't_. Because she's numb and damnitall she doesn't _care_.


	5. Save You from You

**Title: **Save You from You

**Prompt: **#081 Relieved

**Notes: **Going way, waaaay back into the time machine to 'The Waterbending Scroll'. With the scene that made most people Zutarans. Oh yeees. "I'll save you from the pirates." (I don't like this one as much as the next one, but that doesn't really say much.)

Also, I was way shocked (and excited) by the sudden up-shoot in reviews. Thank you so much and keep it up peeps! :D

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**Save You from You**

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Fear is slamming through her veins. Bile claws at her throat. Her limbs move without volition. A water whip that she's too scared to acknowledge. And she's running, running and looking and praying. Praying so hard. It's a sort of numb terror. She finally looks ahead. Sees Prince Zuko. Unconsciously speeds her feet. Gasps as his hands close gently over her wrists.

Katara dimmly acknowledges she should be afraid. He clearly expects her fear. But she feels a vauge sort of half trust toward him that she doesn't for the brute behind her. He is honorable, honorable to a fault. And she knows that he won't hurt her.

"I'll save you from the pirates."

Katara breathes a sigh of something that could be relief. She believes him.


	6. It Comes With a Price

**Title: **It Comes With a Price

**Prompt:** #037 Envious

**Notes: **Takes place during 'Avatar Aang' at the coronation. More AANGST. Because I really, really love making him suffer for being a jerk. Ooooh yes. Suffer Aang, suffer. The title is a miniature tribute to MasakoMoonshade, who wrote _Everything For a Price_. It was the first Zutara fanfiction I ever read, and it was beyond amazing. One of my heroes, right there. Go check her out, she deserves the world. :)

Also, I HATE the Document Manager. HATE WITH THE PASSION OF A THOUSAND AND TWO SUNS. MAY AGNI SMITE IT IN A VERY BLOODY AND PAINFUL WAY! It was being a pain in the you know where. I had to battle it foreeeever. Which is super sad because this is honestly one of my favorites in the entire series.

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It Comes With a Price

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Aang knows about sacrifice and he knows about equivalent exchange. He knows about price tags, knows about too expensives, and knows about bargaining. He knows all of these things and he knows to fault how they apply to life. Every good thing must come with a bad thing. Yin and Yang, balance. He just didn't think it applied to love.

It was foolish of him, he reflects now, to dismiss the laws of equivalent exchange as silly when it came to love. Everything came with a price. _Everything_. Even love. Even Katara.

Oh yes, he has her. He knows that. It is him who she pecks in public and him who she blushingly reintroduces to her father. He is her savior, her knight, her True Love. In the light of day, he is her everything. He gets all of her smiles and kind words and gentle touches. It's all _his_.

She kisses him again gently. "I should go congratulate Zuko," she tells him.

He beams. "Okay."

Aang watches her walk away to what could be one of his greatest friends. He watches them talk animatedly, watches them smirk (Zuko) and smile (Katara) in a way that is befitting of friends. Aang can't help but think as he watches them that the funny thing is, at first he thought that Katara was his cosmic thank-you gift for saving the world. His equivalent exchange. But she's _not_, he realized too late.

He smiles bitterly as Katara leans in to give the newly crowed king a tight hug. Admist the gleeful chaos of the coronation party, Avatar Aang is the only one who notices the way Zuko's lips form 'I love you' and the way Katara clutches him closer at those forbidden words.

Oh yes, Aang knows the laws. Everything comes with a price.


	7. Love In a Teacup

**Title: **Love in a Teacup

**Prompt:** #043 Giddy

**Notes: **After all the gloom and doom and seriousness…FLUFF! Or as close to fluff as one can get within the bounds of cannon. Okay, this also takes place during 'Avatar Aang'. I'm sorry. There's just so much Zutara/Aangst/Other Fun Stuff potential in that episode!

More personal author note, I have finally come back from a long trip. And thus things will be updated. Including _Timeline_ (SHAMELESS PLUGGING) and _Little Things_. To get me back in the groove though, I'm offering a free Zutara gift fic. Whomever claims it first in reviews gets it. Leave a plot of some sort and a title (if you've got one). I'll write it. Thanks!

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Love in a Teacup

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It's a Pai Sho game. Between Mai and Suki. Who had, up until this point, loathed each other with a passion unmatched (even if Mai _did_ assist with getting Suki out of jail, she still helped _put_ her in there too). But apparently Pai Sho allows even bitter enemies to become friends. Or something. Katara's just snickering behind her wide green sleeve and trying not "disturb" them.

She glances over and see Zuko heading toward her with a tray of tea in hand. She silently prays that it is his uncle's tea merely reheated by Zuko. Because really, no matter how hard he tries, Zuko can't make tea. Or at least tea that stays down.

He gives her the sweetest smile in the world as he gives her the tea cup. Katara's heart does little twirls and her whole body is racked with something resembling shivers. In this single moment, they can say 'I love you' with their eyes.

"Zuko, stop moving!" Sokka wails. The moment is broken. As always. Katara rolls eyes as discreetly as possible. Mai and Suki (and Zuko, for that matter) are staring incredulously at Sokka and Aang is still distracted with Momo.

Katara chances a hand brushing Zuko's. She's giving him her tea cup, if anyone asks. Nobody needs to know she's bent the tea within into a tiny heart. Their fingers brush. A tiny flare of heat. A moment. It's love. Love in a tea cup. How ridiculous. How perfect.


	8. What Happens When I Loose You

**Title: **What Happens When I Loose You

**Prompt:** #026 Determined

**Notes: **He just got shot by lightening. He's very close to being dead. He bloody well knows that Katara can handle herself. So why the hell is it that Zuko's _still_ attempting to drag himself up and save Katara?

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What Happens When I Loose You

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Every movement elicits pain. Every thought comes with more nerves screaming that this hurts too much and why in the seven hells of Agni is he not dead yet? But he knows why. Because his thoughts are this: It hurts. Protect her. It hurts. Protect her.

Pain is how he shields her. Because he _has_ to protect her.

Azula's mad laugh fills his ears. Every muscle protests his movement but he tries to shove himself to his knees anyway. He grits his teeth against a body that hurts to badly that he can't even think beyond Katara's name on repeat.

Katara. She's all that matters. She is the world, the revolution, the savior, the healer, the sky, and she is his everything.

The muscles give out. His iron will isn't enough. He feels like crying but he can't even find the energy.

For the first time in years, Zuko prays. Better him than her. If Agni will keep her safe this night, Zuko swears that he will do anything, even die.


	9. And Did I Really Have To

**Title: **And Did I Really Have To

**Prompt: **#048 Guilty

**Notes: **Takes place at the very, very end of Seige of the North Pole Pt. 1. Oh come on. Don't tell me no one's noticed how she slams into a pole, gets knocked out, and then miraculously ends up laying down like five feet from where she landed. Okay, probably just animator error, but still! (Also, Zuko has a serious forgiveness complex when it comes to Katara. I like to imagine that this is what started it.)

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**And Did I Really Have To**

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So there he is, Avatar finally in his grasp (for what, the fifth or sixth time? Honestly.) and a war at his proverbial doorstoop. He has no escape route as of now, which is mildly worrying but he's sure he can think of something. Except while he's standing there, trying to think of how he's going to escape…she's laying there like a rag dollie against the same pole that so sucessfully rendered her unconcious. And he's just a little guilty.

Sighing heavily, he drops the Avatar and hurriedly grabs her arm. None-too-gently (alright, maybe he's treating her like his mother's fine china, it means nothing) he pulls her until she's in a slightly more comfortable position on the ground.

The guilt eases. But not enough. It consumes him even as he figures out his escape route. (Thus begins his forgiveness complex regarding Katara.)


	10. Precious Metal Eyes

**Title:** Precious Metal Eyes

**Prompt:** #020 Crazy

**Notes:** I joined NaNoWriMo! And now for something completely different: Azula. No, seriously. Takes place during her and Zuko's Agni Kai circa Into the Inferno.

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She's not sorry it has to end this way.

All the power in the world seems to flow through her veins and she fancies that she might be able to kill the Avatar (again) right now. Foolish, crazy big brother. And to have brought along that little Waterbender, as if the brat would actually make a difference. Oh, but maybe she miscalculated. Because he is so, so powerful now. When did that happen? But she remembers Ba Sing Se. Goodness, yes, she's remembers Ba Sing Se. He is always so powerful when the Waterbender is near. Which means…

The lightening eases from her fingertips. The girl's eyes widen. Zuko screams.

She's sorry it has to end this way.


	11. The Tallest Tower

**Title: **The Tallest Tower

**Prompt: **#084 Sad

**Notes: **IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a direct companion to 'It Comes With a Price'. Except from Katara's point of view. This really adresses Katara's feelings about a relationship with Aang. Because honestly, she never struck me, at anytime during the series, as being okay with being considered a prize. Also, Zuko would treat her sooo much better.

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The Tallest Tower

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When Katara was five, before she even really understood what war meant, her mother had told her a story. A bedtime story, to be exact. Perhaps, with another child and another mother, that occurance wouldn't have been unusual. But here, in this particular tent, it was unheard of. Legends and spook tales were common, but Kya simply didn't engage in such nonsense as _fairytales_ (something she had inherited from her own mother). But on that day, the first Fire Nation raid in Katara's memory had taken place. And the story, meager and silly, was Kya's desperate attempt to comfort the terrified child.

It was the story of a princess locked away in a very very tall tower made of ice by her family, who did not like her because she was not a Waterbender. They told her that when she could bend herself out of her tower, she would be free. Years passed and the princess still could not bend, but she never, never gave up. (Kya made sure to stress that point, Katara had ignored her.) It was pure luck (or maybe destiny) that dictated that a young and strapping Waterbender would come along to bend her out. Then (much to Katara's delight and Kya's half hearted dismay) they married and proceeded to live happily ever after.

Katara had felt comforted then. Now she doesn't feel so good when she remembered that one fairytale from her youth. "I should go congratulate Zuko," she tells Aang stiffly. Her jaw doesn't want to move, it seems.

"Okay." His smile could light the entire party.

As she walks toward Zuko she tries to stiffle her rising heart and replace the europhia with guilt. _I should feel ashamed,_ she thinks. But she doesn't, not really. Zuko makes her feel alive. She likes to think that he feels the same about her.

Nevertheless, there is only friendly banter and half-witty remarks. Nothing that would give away the secret that isn't really a secret. Finally she hugs him, slowly because she's so, so, _so_ reluctant to let him go. Zuko breathes, "I love you." What can she do but hold him tighter and try desperately to ignore the chaos around them?

Out of the corner of her eye, she spies Aang. Her very own proverbial Waterbender. Her savior from the tall ice tower of ignorance and fear that had been her cage before his arrival. The one who inspired her hope and her dreams and everything that made her who she was.

Zuko's hands are almost unbearably warm on her lower back. Too late the princess has realized that she has traded the tallest tower for a gilded cage. Katara begins to cry.


	12. The Strong

**Title:** The Strong

**Prompt:** #072 Pensive

**Notes:** I never noticed how weird the word 'strong' looks until I wrote this drabble. Takes place mostly in Mai's head but also during 'Avatar Aang' episode. More sympathetic Maingst. (I like Mai. The more I rewatch the series the more I like her.)

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The Strong

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She wonders when she reached this point. When she reached the point of not caring anymore that he doesn't love her, that she is not his princess, that she is second-third-fourth-lost in his affections. When she's willing to take the scraps.

They whisper behind her back that she's weak. So silly, to stay with a man that does not want her, that keeps her out of misguided pity and fond memories of first love. Can't she see? they whisper, like she can't hear them.

Sometimes, she agrees with them. She plays her Pai Sho game with Suki (wonders when she began to be friends with her enemies, wonders if that change happened at the same time she was reduced to waiting for the tattered remains of his love). Sees, from the very corner of her eye, the brilliant, beautiful look he gives Katara (that ). Watches the _proof_ of his "infedelity", and thinks herself weak.

Sometimes (when she holds him close as he cries and tells her he's sorry but he loves Katara so so so so _so_ much that it's breaking him apart on the inside and the outside) she thinks herself strong.


	13. Swing of Your Hips

**Title:** Swing of Your Hips

**Prompt:** #036 Enthralled

**Notes:** This actually has no relevence. None at all. There is absolutely no point that Zuko sees Katara dance in the series, and this is probably considered post series but I have no idea how long after the series. This drabble simply…exists. Enjoy. (P.S. I know I updated 3 days ago. Sue me, I'm a review whore feeling more whoreish than normal.)

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Swing of Your Hips

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It's not that Katara is a good dancer. Because she isn't, if everyone is going to be completely honest. She can follow dance moves with the same sort of grace that she follows her Waterbending moves. She can preform amazing acrobatic tricks with the same sort of agility that she uses in her Waterbending tricks. But merely placing her out on a dancefloor with music could only result in an awkward, boxy little series of movements. So no, it's not that Katara's a good dancer.

(That needed to be established.)

It's just that when she dances, really _dances_ with her weird, awkward, boxy, silly, painful, stupid little moves…well, something in Zuko sort of tightens up and steals the breath from his lungs and makes his heart squeeze.

And he's heard before of women's dancing making men go more than a little insane. Heard of True Love being found in a single, senuous dance. Why not, he's from the Fire Nation after all. They may be uptight but they were definitely rather sexual.

(An oxymoron, yes. The Fire Nation is full of them. The rest of the world just sort of nods and goes with it.)

But Katara is not a good dancer. Her movements are not senuous, not sexual, not even graceful. They are ugly and strange and embarassing and everybody knows it, even Katara. Zuko finds himself madly in love after a single dance anyway.


	14. It's All the Masquerade

**Title:** It's All the Masquerade

**Prompt:** #063 Mischievous

**Notes:** More FLUFF. W00t. Takes place during The Ember Island Players. Hehe. Wow. Not that good, in my opinion, but yeah, it needs to be put out at some point. XD

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It's All the Masquerade

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It's a play. A really, really bad play. Not that he should have expected anything else, this is the same troupe that slaughters Love Among the Dragons _every_ year. Still, he expected something at least a little better. Still, he sucks it up and watches it with as few complaints as he can, because the others are definately complaining enough to fill his quota. It's going fine, dandy, peachy, etc. It really is.

And then Jet dies. "Did…Jet just die?" Beside him, Katara lets out a little half-whine, half-whimper. It's almost covered by Sokka's flippant, "It was very unclear." which probably points to Sokka being over Jet's possible death. Or something. Not that anyone else seems that concerned either. Zuko glances back over at Katara, who seems to have taken his question badly. (The only one who did.) For whatever reason. (Maybe that whole romance scene with the village flooding earlier has something to do with it?)

Gently he slides his hand over to tap her fingers with his. Not quite a hand hold, because they aren't there just yet (even if they _are _charging headlong toward it at a speed that would be frightening if he weren't so enamored with her). But it's comfort, comfort offered despite the quietly sick feeling of jealousy that swells at the thought of her and Jet. It's good. She glances up at him. He smiles. She smiles. It's disgustingly cute. (It sucessfully squashes the quietly sick jealousy.)

"I have to admit Prince Zuko, I really find you attractive."

Zuko must say that this is disgustingly awkward. (They aren't there yet, after all.)

(But, they sort of grin at each other after they get over the awkward-schooch-away...maybe they're not there yet, but there's always tomorrow.)


	15. Just a Savior Complex

**Title:** Just a Savior Complex

**Prompt:** #098 Vulnerable

**Notes:** During 'The Painted Lady', there's the scene…well, you'll see. But for some reason it made me think that it could apply to the whole cave/Zuko/healing thing. It's probably one of my favorites so far, though I'm not sure why. Um…just read it. BTW, I have a ton of Little Things built up, but I never get around to posting them. I think I might have a small problem. o.O

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**Just a Savior Complex**

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People who know Katara know that she likes to save things. Boys frozen in iceburgs, villages in trouble, and bearded cats stuck in trees. It's her nature and despite her element it's pretty unchangeable.

This village isn't different. Katara sees it and just wants to _save_ it. Not for the glory, but because she can and because she feels this constant, deep, nagging need to help. Maybe because it's part of her nature. Maybe because she's still reeling from the one person she couldn't save.

She doesn't expect it to end like this, watching a sort of immenent doom race toward the village while she argues with her brother. It's not what she expected at all.

"Well, what was I supposed to do?" she snaps, turning away from Sokka.

"Leave. Do nothing," he says. Like it's that easy. Irrationally, she wonders if he would have said the same thing about Zuko. If he would have said that she was stupid. If, if, if. Spirits damn it, she is _going _to save this village and she is one day, somehow, going to save _Zuko_.

She turns to face Sokka. "No! I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me."


	16. The Dragon and the Princess

**Title:** Dragon and the Princess

**Prompt:** #012 Broken

**Notes:** IMPORTANT NOTES: This is a direct companion to 'It Comes With a Price' and 'The Tallest Tower'. Again, idea courtesy of jennibare. Well, sort of. I'd contemplated finishing my vauge trilogy with something from Zuko's POV but never got around to it. See, Aang may have considered Katara a prize, and Katara may not have been okay with being a prize, but Zuko would probably throw something of a fit for people treating Katara like a prize. XD

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**Dragon and the Princess**

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They all had their legends. Azula had tales of great battles and master strategists, Ty Lee her own imagined lives and escapes and romances, Mai the soft glittering fairytales of Fire Nation nobility. Those legends served different purposes, and of course formed very different women.

Zuko had legends too. Many, many, _many_ legends dispensed by the caring hand of his mother. He learned about heroes and princesses and dragons and towers and saving the world. He learned and absorbed.

Here is what he learned: no matter how true the words that slip of his mouth are, that 'I love you' is more forbidden than _anything_. Because Aang is the hero, Katara is the princess. Zuko is the dragon. The beast of fire that will curl itself around the princess, protect her from the harsh world and whisper gentle things in her ear, jealously guard her like the precious, precious creature she is. And one day, one day be defeated so that the hero can save the princess. It doesn't matter that she is happiest left to her dragon-man-boy. Aang is the hero. Katara is the princess. Zuko is the dragon. So yes, in terms of fairytales they are forbidden.

That doesn't stop his arms from tightening around her waist. Her body quivers just a bit in his hold. He realizes with a start that she's _crying_. And not little, dainty tears like he's used to. Like most things, Katara cries prettily. Not now. Her sobs are body wracking. The tears are damp against his neck.

"I'm sorry," he says, a little helplessly.

"No, no, no," she whispers. And he almost can't hear her, because her face is pressed so deeply into his ceramonial robes that it's a wonder she can even breathe. "No. Stay. Please. Just stay. Stay forever."

"Alright," he says, even though he can't keep that promise.

But...maybe, one day, the dragon will rescue the princess from her hero. And maybe, one day, there will finally be a happily ever after.


	17. Don't You Even Dare

**Title:** Don't You Even Dare

**Prompt:** #055 Jealous

**Notes:** Takes place during 'The Crossroads of Destiny' cave scene. Yes, every single Avatard in existance knows to what which I refer. :3

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Don't You Even Dare

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"Aang!" and she is ripping away from him and running with open arms to that pathetic boy. And it shouldn't hurt, because they've only just barely formed a tenative sort of truce. But it does hurt, it hurts almost like it did when Uncle was injured by Azula. It hurts and he finds himself snarling at Aang as she runs to embrace the boy.

Her arms enclose around Aang's neck in a gentle motion, a happy motion. Aang seems happy too, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. It's sort of sickening in it's indescribable sweetness. But then Aang looks up and sees the snarl on Zuko's face.

It's okay, Aang is snarling back now.

Somehow, deep inside, they both know what's going on. They know this isn't merely loathing on the you-tried-to-capture-me/you-broke-my-ribs-with-one-of-your-stupid-air-tricks/we-once-sort-of-hated-each-other scale. No. Now they've reached a tug-of-war over Katara, and for some utterly bizarre reason it's not really clear who's winning.


	18. Just a Single Touch

**Title:** Just a Single Touch

**Prompt: **#001 Accomplished

**Notes:** So, very, very sweetly, jennibare suggests an idea for Little Things. And I go, "Ooooh, good one." So I watch the clips she suggested. And I get a plethora of ideas. XD Which means…she is a godess. I pimp her awesomeness. (That last sentence sounds so very wrong.)

Takes place during The Old Masters. It is fluff and humor and other stuff. Also, pure speculation as there is very little screen evidence for this drabble. Actually, scratch that, except for a couple of shots were it looks like she's staring at his butt, there is no screen evidence. Let's let bygones be bygones, yeah?

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**Just a Single Touch**

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Jun brings back memories. Some good, some bad, some neutral. Okay, mostly bad with very little good and slim to none neutral, but still.

What stands out most in Katara's mind, however, is not how Aang flew to the rescue. Nor how awful it felt to be paralyzed. Not even how bizarre it was to figure out that she could bend perfume as easily as water. No, no. The most memorable thing about that whole Jun incident so very long ago is how Zuko's hand felt on her butt.

Because, let's face it, Katara is a hormonal teenage girl. And maybe, back then, when it first happened, it stayed so clear because she was "outraged" and "violated" and "disgusted". Maybe. But now, now that she knows him and trusts him and maybe has a tiny (really, it's not like she's madly in love with him, _promise_) crush on him, that memory is painted with pink and little sparkles of gooey affection.

So the thing is, this is not about him touching her butt except in the most roundabout sense. No, this moment, as he talks with Jun about technicalities of family, is that _Zuko's_ very fine, firm tush is _right there_ and nobody's watching _her_ or her slightly twitchy hand and it's not like anybody would _know_ if she were to grope _him_.

So…blushing just a little bit, she does. Not even a real squeeze. Just a brush. But oh, his butt is just as perfect as she'd imagined and seen and wow…


	19. Of All the Things I've Done

**Title: **Of All the Things I've Done

**Prompt:** #078 Regretful

**Notes:** Um…I like this one. I like it a lot.

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* * *

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**Of All the Things I've Done**

* * *

Aang is dashing off, down the tunnel to somehow unknown place. The place he came from to save her. She realizes she should follow. Her brother, her surrogate sister, hell, all of Ba Sing Se, is in imminent danger. Nevermind Aang, who really does need someone around constantly to keep him out of danger.

So she follows. She walks toward the dark tunnel, wonders what lies at the end. But she finds her steps slowing, finds her head turning to look back at the man-boy who she had bonded with barely minutes before. Who she had _touched_ barely minutes before.

As if responding to the memory, her palm tingles. It seems to say, "I remember. I remember the rasp of burnt skin and the gentle brush of his breath against my fingers. I remember how in that moment, I felt like a girl in love."

But she can't stay. The world absolutely depends on her going. On her leaving him behind.

Zuko will never know. As he talks with his uncle, as he chooses his path in life, he will never know.

He will never know that leaving him is the hardest thing she has ever done.


	20. The Things You Don't Know

**Title:** The Things You Don't Know

**Prompt:** #018 Calm

**Notes:** Oh, come on. :3 Cave Scene. Need I say more? BTW, rewatched entire series. Yes, my point is completely, totally f!cking valid.

* * *

**The Things You Don't Know**

* * *

There are things they don't know about each other. A grand multitude of them, really. But the things they don't know aren't entirely important most of the time. They have both lost their mothers, they have both been scarred by the event, they both are stubborn and proud and have something of a savior complex. That knowledge is worth more than all of the favorite colors and weirdest condement choices in the world.

But some things that they don't know…hurt them.

He doesn't know, as she spills her heart about her mother and her nation and her childhood innocence being ripped away…that she has never cried before. Not about this. Not even when they found the bloody, burnt corpse on the floor of their house. She did not cry. She _would not_ cry. She has never felt safe enough to do so. Why she does now, why she can shed silent tears for the woman she loved best, she doesn't want to contemplate.

She doesn't know, as he slowly, softly closes his eyes to let her soft hand rest on his cheekmoutheyes….that he has never let another touch his scar before. Not like this. Not even when it was still raw and oozing and badly needing ointment. He did it himself. He always did it himself. He never trusted another to be gentle, even once it healed. Why he lets her touch it now, why he lets the waves of calm flow through him, he doesn't dare contemplate.

The things they don't know about each other are stunning in the depth of lack. Most stunning, maybe, is the fact that they still don't know they're soulmates.


	21. How You Save Me Now

**Title:** How You Save Me Now

**Prompt:** #005 Anxious

**Notes:** Courtesy pimping for jennibare, She Who Inspires. Takes place during 'The Pheonix King'. I don't like this one for some reason. **shrugs** I'm trying to crank out more Little Things, because I want this beast finished so I'll have one less fic to worry about.

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* * *

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**How You Save Me Now**

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It's stupid to be frightened, of course. It's not like she's never seen a fight before (hell, she's participated in more than she cares to remember.) It's just that, well, she _is _frightened. Sort of. Mostly because of Jun, even though that's also stupid. Still. Fear. Enough that she's reaching out to brush her hand over Zuko's, because even though they're not _together_ they sort of are and some instinctive part of her knows that he'll protect her.

In the background, Sokka and Toph discuss Jun's skin. It's almost as stupid as Katara's fear. Almost.

Zuko weaves his fingers through her's in a reassuring gesture, and when he begins talking about the Shirshu, she notices how his body moves in front of her almost minutely. Their hands slip apart, but she's feeling a little braver now.


	22. Summer Sweat

**Title:** Summer Sweat

**Prompt:** #056 Kinky

**Notes:** **blushes** This is _almost_ rated M. It's pushing it. Takes place during the Ember Island Players. If you read the note on the drabble before this one, you know that I'm pushing to finish Little Things. Thus the double update. :D

* * *

**Summer Sweat**

* * *

Katara watches them practice. At first, at the Western Air Temple, it was because she was suspicious of Zuko. She had no reason to trust him, no reason to believe that he wouldn't eliminate Aang the moment everyone's back was turned. Then, sometime around Zuko helping rescue her father and Suki, she began watching out of pure curiousity. She had seen firebending before, but not like that. Then, when they had transferred to Ember Island, it had somehow transfigured into watching because she could watch _him_. She could see the muscles flex and the hair muss and the eyes narrow and the sheer masculine _power_ he would exude.

So now she watches with hot eyes, her mouth dry and her body tight, as he moves through katas. A punch, a spin, a kick. The fire follows his limbs, light glistening off the pale, sweaty skin that ripples over well formed muscles. He stops, corrects Aang, and her body shivers as the husky timbre of his voice. Then he's moving again, and talking, and Katara wants to _fuck_ him. To lick the sweat running down his chest, to rub the muscles gliding under his skin, to kiss and suck and just generally be obscene. And she wants him to do everything right back.

Zuko stops moving, and orders Aang to show him the kata again. Aang does so, but Zuko's eyes are not on his student. They are on Katara, gold locking onto blue. A slow, sensual smirk spreads across his lips. There's something about his expression that screams sex.

Katara's breathe catches in her throat. Maybe she has a better chance at all those girlish fantasies than she had previously thought.


	23. Hold My Hand

**Title:** Hold My Hand

**Prompt:** #093 Sympathetic

**Notes:** There _are_ actually a couple of frames were Katara, Zuko, and Toph are standing together while Jun is placating her Shirshu. Both of Toph's hands are clearly visible, but Katara and Zuko are standing so close to each other that you can't see the hands that are nearest to each other. Also. JUN. Fucking hell I love Jun.

* * *

**Hold My Hand**

* * *

Zuko is eyeing the large Shirshu with wary eyes. He remembers the sting of its' tongue well enough, and he's not eager to repeat the experience. A quick glance to the side, however, shows that Katara has moved beyond wary to just plain frightened. He's not sure why that would be, but it worries him all the same.

Her hand dangles limp at her side, so he takes it and squeezes it gently. He almost smiles when she squeezes back. Then she lets go, smiling at him as she walks off toward Appa with the rest of their group.

He's about to join them when he hears Jun's silky, husky voice. "So, what was that about her not being your girlfriend, Prince Pouty?"


	24. Judgment Days

**Title:** Judgment Days

**Prompt:** #092 Surprised

**Notes:** What originally sparked off my idea for _Thicker Than Blood_. -shameless plug plug- Takes place during The Southern Raiders. Yep…

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**Judgment Days**

* * *

She has a man on his knees before her, his body bent at a truly awkward angle with her bloodbending. And it's a sick, twisted technique and she knows it but she's too too too angry right now to give a fuck. And her eyes dart to Zuko but he isn't looking at her, he's looking at the man. And he's not judging, not fearing. And that feels so so so good.

She is in love with him before she can even properly comprehend what love is. Because right now she is angry, and sad, and hurt, and guilty, and a thousand other unidentified emotions; but more than that she's really only a fourteen year old girl underneath the exterior of fearless warrior and Avatar sifu. She has never been in love before, not really.

(There was Haru of the quiet smiles and the quiet voice and the quiet courage, whom she felt a faint affection towards. There was Jet of the brash actions and the brash words and the brash romanticism, whom she felt a girlish crush towards.)

That was okay before now, because when (if) they win this war, she'll have years and years and years to fall in love. To figure out what love was, and how it worked, and why it was felt. So before―or maybe Before―she was okay with not being in love. Now, she vaguely wonders how she ever got on without it.


	25. Build It Up, Watch It Fall

**Title:** Build It Up, Watch It Fall

**Prompt:** #030 Drained

**Notes:** Uh…under the assumption that Zuko has a crush on Katara, and would be understandably a bit heartbroken at her leaving him for Aang. I'm beginning to notice that my drabbles are not nearly so restricted by cannon as they used to be. BTW, 'Avatar Aang'. Like you didn't already guess. Psht. Also, I am turning into the worst updater ever. If I weren't such a review whore and the plot bunnies didn't attack me, this account might fall into total neglect. XD

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**Build It Up, Watch It Fall**

* * *

Zuko has never been broken. Not once. Even when he was dragged, burned and bleeding and maimed from the site of his first Agni Kai, one against his own _father_. Even when he was almost killed by his psychotic sister and forced to live as a refugee lucky to have fresh bread that he didn't have to steal. Even when he was forced to walk away from his homeland, his people, and his girlfriend in order to fulfill a destiny that would probably lead to a lot of heartache. He had not broken.

He had not been broken and he could now say that he is a better man for it. He's survived trials that would have shattered lesser men. Not only survived but, at times, thrived. He's beaten impossible odds. He's overcome.

Katara's hand is fleeting as it brushes his, her eyes meaningful as they meet his. Then she is gone, a phantom of green dress and brown skin and blue eyes. She is gone. Gone, gone, gone. There's no getting her back from where she's gone, not now.

He closes his eyes and breathes in through his nose. The back of his eyelids provides no comfort. Images of her petal soft lips brushing Aang's dance across his lids. Gone, gone, gone. Zuko can never have her.

Zuko breaks.


	26. Face the Dark Without You

**Title:** Face the Dark Without You

**Prompt:** #059 Listless

**Notes:** Takes place sometime early season three. I'd say probably around The Beach or very soon thereafter, but there's not a specific time.

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**Face the Dark Without You**

* * *

The candle by his bedside flickers with his breaths. His eyes are locked on the flame, trying to hypnotize himself to sleep. Not that it's working. The air is warm and muggy as is typical of the Fire Nation in the summertime. His raw silk sheets are too hot for comfort. If he was smart, he thinks, he would blow out the candle. Too much heat, and it won't matter how hypnotized he is.

But he doesn't blow it out. If it goes out, he'll be left to the darkness. The darkness calls to mind things he'll do anything not to remember. Rather, things he can't _afford_ to remember. One moment of weakness and he'll be right back where he started―her hand cupping his face, breath ghosting across his lips, blue eyes concerned and almost ethereal in the glowing crystal cavern, promising things that he could only dream of accepting.

The flame reaches so high it almost scorches the ceiling, responding to his volatile emotions. He hurriedly calms it down, breathing slowly and evenly in a vain attempt to soothe his emotions to their normal state. It isn't working, so he simple extinguishes the candle.

"_Zuko…"_

One night of weakness wouldn't hurt, right?


	27. This Time Will Be Different

**Title: **This Time Will Be Different

**Prompt:** #050 Hopeful

**Notes:** …I love Koh. He competes with Jun for the title of "Favorite One-Shot-Ish Character". Because they both are Teh Awesome. Takes place during 'The Seige of the North Pt. 2'. Minor connections with my fic 'Timeline' because that's been on my brain lately.

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**This Time Will Be Different**

* * *

Koh knows everything. It's something that Wan Shi Tong resents him for (one of the several reasons that the bizarre owl spirit retired to the mortal world) and the rest of the spirits vaguely fear him for. But Koh knows everything, whether or not anybody likes it.

He gets visitors because of his knowledge. Visitors like Avatar Aang, so very young and so very naïve and so very, very blind. Avatar Aang talks of cultures, talks of moon spirits, talks of wars, talks of things that will be resolved because they always are.

Koh tells Avatar Aang anyway. "They balance each other," he says. That is true, Tui and La have always balanced each other. "Push and pull, life and death, good and evil, Yin and Yan." And he is warning Avatar Aang, in his own way. Not about Tui and La, goodness no.

He warns of the little Waterbender and her Firebender, hurtling down the path they have already trod a thousand times. He warns that selfish love can come to nothing, because there is no way to separate the two from each other. He warns, because he still hopes that this time will be different.


	28. Thank God I'm Pretty

**Title: **Thank God I'm Pretty

**Prompt:** #073 Pessimisstic

**Notes: **Sort of based on the song 'Thank God I'm Pretty' by Emilie Autumn, as well as the movie Swan Princess. XD

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**Thank God I'm Pretty**

* * *

Toph doesn't appear to care about beauty right up until she's crying quietly in the middle of a street because a couple of catty comments. Katara smiles, even though Toph can't see the smile. She spits out encouraging words, about being beautiful and about stupid teenagers. And Toph smiles, and she really is rather pretty in that moment. Then Toph is wearing her customary half scowl, half smirk and she doesn't look really pretty. Intimidating, sure, but she's far too tomboyish to be pretty.

Katara is almost envious.

Toph will never know what it's like to be the "pretty one". Toph will never be questioned, will never be given condescending looks. Toph will never wonder if the man who says he loves her is in love with her, or her face.

Katara voices this thought. Quietly, quietly, because she can't stop herself and because she thinks Toph needs to know that everything isn't about beauty. Toph shrugs, and dismisses until almost four months later. Then they are leaving the playhouse after that _awful_ play, and Toph stops. Sokka and Suki, caught up in their flirtation, keep walking, but everyone else stops.

"The play got me thinking, and I was thinking, what is Katara's biggest trait? I mean, crybaby preacher sugar queen for sure…" Toph trails off invitingly. Katara turns bright red under her tan and almost hisses something at Toph before deciding better of it. Instead, she stalks off, turning the corner in the path and hiding behind some convenient boulders. Toph knows she's stayed, but the boys don't.

Aang's answer stings: "The most beautiful girl ever." He beams like this is the good answer, but it's not, because she's always been the pretty one, the beautiful one, the one who is better for nothing than her looks.

She blinks back the bitterness and turns her gaze to Zuko, and the look on his face puzzles her. He's looking at the moon, as if weighing the words. : "Katara…she's a lot of things, Toph. She's fierce, she's beautiful, she's a warrior, a healer. Pick one."

Toph laughs. "Well I already did. What about you?"

Zuko sighs, then says, so softly that Katara almost can't hear, "For me, she's redemption, salvation."


	29. Paint It Black

**Title: **Paint It Black

**Prompt: **#006 Apathetic

**Notes:** To be honest, this one is just sort of there. I don't like it, but I can't bring myself to delete it. Thus…

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**Paint It Black**

* * *

Mai doesn't care. She never has. She watches the world through eyes jaded with apathy. Every emotion is dulled to the point of nothingness. If she was once as fiery and passionate as her boyfriend, she can't remember those days. That's okay. _She _is okay. Zuko can keep his rampant emotion, let it weaken him as much as it strengthens him. _She_ is satisfied to stay within with her armor of apathy, perhaps not at her strongest but protected from the world anyway.

Zuko hates that, she knows. Mai can balance him, can be the ice that cools his unrelenting flames. She can be that for him, but she cannot be the sort of girl that Zuko wants. Zuko wants _passion_, wants loud arguments followed by gooey reconciliations, wants a girl who will have all of the fury of hellfire and all the comfort of a summer day. Mai is not that girl, forgot how to even pretend to be that girl long ago.

Their relationship is tumultuous at best. Not in the traditional way of fights. No. There is tension broiling beneath the surface at all times, just waiting to be released. And through it all, Mai keeps herself protected behind a wall of apathy.

So when the corner of her eye catches him looking at Katara with the sort of warmth and devotion that he has never graced her with…she doesn't feel anything. Her heart is curiously frozen, unable to even muster a little anger.

Instead, she moves a Pai Sho tile.


	30. Stealing the Princess

**Title:** Stealing the Princess

**Prompt:** #068 Nostalgic

**Notes:** Takes place between Boiling Rock Pt 2 and The Southern Raiders. Waaaah, I love the idea of Zuko chasing Katara around trying to make her like him again. It's so damn cute.

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**Stealing the Princess**

* * *

Nobody except possibly Bato would ever accuse Hakoda of being a sentimental fool prone to long, drawn out bouts of nostalgia. Nevertheless, just because people do not accuse Hakoda of such things doesn't mean that they aren't true.

So Hakoda watches as the young firebender chases his daughter around, looking like a lost seal puppy and practically begging for attention―positive or negative makes very little difference. Katara, of course, storms and stomps and threatens and waves water whips and narrows her eyes and growls obscenities, but it is she who gently heals a cut procured when the firebender had helped the Duke away from a canyon monkey.

It's so much like Hakoda and Kya once upon a time that the sentimentality and nostalgia practically choke him. Even so, he has fatherly concern to deal with, and he makes sure that Zuko knows just how much trouble he'll be in if he ever breaks Katara's heart again. Katara is Hakoda's little princess, after all. But someone will steal her one day, and from the way Katara blushes during firebending practice, Zuko is turning out to be a rather fine thief.


	31. Do Not Cry

**Title: **Do Not Cry

**Prompt: **#046 Grateful

**Notes: **Sometime after The Chase but before Bitter Work.

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**Do Not Cry**

* * *

She never healed his uncle. Her small brown hands never touched the raw wound on the older man's side, and her soft voice never lulled the refugees into a sense of calm. She was not there as Zuko did everything he could to make sure that his uncle, the last and only person in the world that Zuko is absolutely sure will always, _always _be there for him, lived.

But she could have been there. She had offered, stepping forth as her voice gave him a message of hope. When he closes his eyes and tries not to cry as his uncle does not wake for another dawn, he hears her gentle voice saying his name so softly, in a way that no one else has ever said it before.

He is grateful to her because she is what keeps him steady in these bleak moments. The memory of her voice, the way that she offered forgiveness and salvation without saying those words. It burns at him that he turned her away and yet he thinks that when the time comes he will be ready to take her offer, to stand before her and let her healing hands touch him and let her healing voice soothe away the wounds of his soul. He thinks that next time, next time, he will let her save him.


End file.
